That it is beneficial to nerves as well as interesting to the visitor he further testifies. Men who have gone there physical wrecks in January have returned gay, jaunty, and full of vigour in February. Nerves soon learn to resume their normal functions and cease to torture; sleeplessness is something to laugh at.
I do not know anything more instructive or offering greater inducement to indulge in reveries of bygone times than some of the parish churches of this island. Notably so does the handsome, spacious edifice built of stone in Queen Anne style, at Montego Bay, produce that effect upon the thoughtful observer. Two crimson-blossomed, lofty, flamboyant trees stand like guarding sentries over the pathway leading up to the church. As you pass along, handsome tombs, some with railings round, others being heavy grave-stones with which one is familiar at home, but all bearing traces of the usage of time, lie scattered on either side. Once inside the church and your eye lights on name after name on the mural tablets on the walls which strikes you as familiar. These are generally monuments to the memory of wealthy landowners in times past who possessed the much-coveted sugar estates in the surrounding district, and where indeed their direct or collateral descendants are at the present day it would probably be painful to discover; but before a perfect masterpiece of the sculptor’s art I stood literally spell-bound. This is one of Bacon’s monuments, bearing the date 1794, and is the far-famed one dedicated to the memory of Rose Palmer. There are two stories connected with this; a local legend, which on the face of it is incorrect, declared that it was erected to a Rose Palmer, a virago famous for her misdeeds, having during her lifetime disposed of four husbands. She was finally murdered by her slaves, whom she had treated with savage cruelty. There is a discoloration around the neck of the figure, and some fancy a mark on the pedestal faintly resembling a blood-stain; these are believed by local superstition to have appeared shortly after the monument was placed in situ, manifesting unquestionably her guilt. The rector of Montego Bay, however, told me the correct version. The sculpture represents a most beautifully-moulded female figure gracefully draped, and drooping pathetically over a funereal urn; she is presumably the embodiment of human grief; upon the face of the urn a medallion portraying the features of Rose, the first wife of John Palmer, is seen. The wretch to whose memory this monument has been wrongly ascribed by those who like a good story was an Irish girl, who acted as maid to the first wife, and after her decease became the second Mrs Palmer.
A quaint inscription records the sorrows of the husband who had this beautiful work of art executed in England, to be erected to the memory of a much-beloved wife:
“Her manners were open, cheerful, and agreeable,
And being blessed with a plentiful fortune
Hospitality dwelt with her as long as health permitted her
to enjoy society.
Educated by the anxious care of a Reverend Divine, her father,
Her charities were not ostentatious, but of a nobler kind.
She was warm in her attachment to her friends,
And gave the most signal proof of it
In the last moments of her life.”
“This tribute of affection and respect
Is erected by her husband the Honourable John Palmer
as a monument of her worth and of his gratitude.”
The history of the handsome, but cruel and wanton successor of this gentle lady is significant of the times in which she lived, when the plantation owners had the power of life and death and of bodily mutilation in their hands. In addition to her depraved morals, it is recorded of her that she tortured her girl-slaves by making them wear shoes having wooden soles, which were charged with blunted pegs, and which must have hurt them cruelly when they had to stand upon them. She also beat them with a perforated platter that drew blood. This fiend, presumably from a fit of intense jealousy, caused the death of a beautiful coloured girl, who was the mistress of her stepson. It is said she had her victim led out to be strangled in the presence of all the slaves on the plantation. Afterwards, her head was severed from her body, and Mrs Palmer had it preserved in spirits!
CHAPTER XVII
DESCRIPTION OF ROSE HALL—SUGAR—THE EXPENSE OF WORKING AN ESTATE A CENTURY AGO—BANANA CULTIVATION
The mountains round Montego Bay were the scene of a long and unrelenting struggle between the forces of the government and the Maroons. After a prolonged struggle blood-hounds from Cuba were imported to hunt them down. Many ghastly scenes took place in the recesses and defiles amongst the hills.